At least 15,000 bags are stranded at Heathrow airport after a third day of cancellations at the new Terminal 5.

The news came after one-fifth of British Airways flights from the troubled terminal were scrapped on Saturday – 67 out of the 330 scheduled.

Many passengers said they departed on flights after being told their luggage would not be travelling. A further 37 flights have been cancelled for Sunday.

This is the same new terminal that has the new “fingerprint everybody” policy. I’m glad they’ve got their priorities straight, because I’m sure all these passengers are feeling really, really safe right now.

I’m all in favour of a fingerprint all US citizens policy, preferably using permanent ink that takes weeks to wash off. Then perhaps they’d get over all their security theatre stuff. Fingerprinting people does no good at all unless you already know who the terrorists are, and have their prints in your database.

Two months ago, Mayor Daley’s corruption-fighting inspector general fired one of his assistant chief investigators after she was arrested for shoplifting $131.43 worth of items at a Chicago grocery store.

Now, Tracy Buckley has been acquitted of those charges. She might even try to reclaim her $77,784-a-year job.

Circuit Court Judge Stuart Katz found Buckley not guilty this week after prosecutors failed to play a surveillance video and waived their right to deliver opening and main closing statements.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned Friday that the huge profits generated from piracy and counterfeiting are increasingly flowing into the coffers of terrorist groups.

In remarks to Silicon Valley executives at the Tech Museum of Innovation, Mukasey said the economy and national security of the United States are increasingly threatened by violations involving copyrighted software code, patented inventions and trademarked properties.

Terror groups are taking their cues from organized crime and increasingly funding their operations from counterfeiting and piracy, he said.

Let me rephrase that for you:

Every time you pay for a pirated movie or CD, you fund organized crime and terrorism.

So, the best thing to do is to get your pirated movies and CD’s for free instead. This means that if you’re running a torrent server, you’re fighting terrorism!

In other news, I also heard that piracy slightly pulls the moon out of orbit

The third and final day of the PWN to OWN contest at the CanSecWest security conference begins today, March 28th at 12:30pm local time (PST) in Vancouver. Yesterday, on day two of the contest, the MacBook Air was successfully compromised first and won by a team from Independent Security Evaluators, also winning $10,000 from us (the Zero Day Initiative).

[..]

Congratulations to Shane Macaulay from Security Objectives – he has just won the Fujitsu U810 laptop running Vista Ultimate SP1 after it was installed with the latest version of Adobe Flash.Not only is he the official winner of the Fujitsu laptop, but also $5,000 from us. Shane received some assistance from his friends Derek Callaway (also from Security Objectives) and Alexander Sotirov. If you’ll also remember, Shane Macaulay was Dino Dai Zovi’s on-site team member at last year’s PWN to OWN event in which they ultimately took the top prize.

Ugh. I’m still fuming about this. I host a poker game on Thursday nights and last night one of the regular players invited a new guy to the game that no one else knew. In the middle of the game, someone brought up politics (not me; I don’t talk politics with most of that crew, I just play poker with them). And this new guy blurts out, “I can’t believe no one has taken a shot at Obama. Can you imagine if they elect a fucking nigger as president?”

I was absolutely stunned. I told him to get the hell out of my house, he wasn’t welcome here. And then I got the typical answer: “Oh, I didn’t mean….” Bullshit. Yes you did. You just didn’t know it wasn’t safe to be a racist around me. Now get the hell out of my house. This is not the first time this has happened in my life.

[..]

I’ve had the same thing happen with anti-gay slurs as well. Unlike most people, I don’t just nod and smile when someone calls people faggot or other such slurs. While I will gladly fight for their legal right to say such things, I won’t let it go unanswered and I certainly won’t allow it in my house. And the reaction is the same every time.

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.
This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realised LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.
Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one anothers culture.
We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high.

A recent Clinton campaign research document charged that Barack Obama was falsely claiming to be a professor:

Sen. Obama consistently and falsely claims that he was a law professor. The Sun-Times reported that, “Several direct-mail pieces issued for Obama’s primary [Senate] campaign said he was a law professor at the University of Chicago. He is not. He is a senior lecturer (now on leave) at the school. In academia, there is a vast difference between the two titles. Details matter.” In academia, there’s a significant difference: professors have tenure while lecturers do not. [Hotline Blog, 4/9/07; Chicago Sun-Times, 8/8/04]

The Law School has received many media requests about Barack Obama, especially about his status as “Senior Lecturer.” From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track. The title of Senior Lecturer is distinct from the title of Lecturer, which signifies adjunct status. Like Obama, each of the Law School’s Senior Lecturers have high-demand careers in politics or public service, which prevent full-time teaching. Several times during his 12 years as a professor in the Law School, Obama was invited to join the faculty in a full-time tenure-track position, but he declined.

On one hand, you have the Clinton attacks which clearly are having a negative effect on Barack Obama (though he’s shown an ability to rebound slightly). That’s the intended effect — drive his numbers down as much as possible, so that superdelegates see him as unelectable. And, indeed, his general election numbers aren’t as good as they once were, as John McCain is quickly gaining ground.

On the other hand, Hillary Clinton’s numbers are bottoming out pretty quick, also in response to her ‘kitchen sink’ strategy — turning off white Democratic voters (dropping from a 12 point lead to an 8 point lead against Obama) and white voters overall (with a 51% negative rating); collapsing numbers among all voters (down to just 37% positive rating); and even losing women at a fast clip (dropping from 51% positive rating to 42% in just one month!) And despite all the attacks on Obama, she still isn’t beating McCain, in the latest poll.

By now it’s pretty clear that Hillary wants McCain to win so she can run again in 2012.

It looked harmless enough, but the words on a billboard un-nerved so many people that a popular restaurant nearby actually lost business.

The billboard was on Colonial Drive near the Old Cheney Highway. Although the popular Straub’s Seafood restaurant often advertises on it, this wasn’t their billboard. The sign was taken down after Channel 9 started asking questions.

The billboard came down around 4:00 Friday afternoon and nearby business owners are relieved. Straub’s restaurant can replace the sign with the night’s specials.

Why are people so amazingly insecure in their religion that they feel “insulted” when somebody questions it?

Well, religious people feel insulted for this sign.
And scientist cry outrage when “Evolution is a fairytale” posters are put up. Or when you joke with probability science. Or with gravity. Or anything that is their area of specialty. They get real loud and can throw quite a long rant.

People do not like when things they feel strongly about are mocked or questioned.

No, I would consider outrage the books thrown at my head when I said it jokingly.
Big book. Hard cover.
Seriously, scientists can get really, really angry and well, a lot of them are just bigot believers in what they were told at university.
Funny, but they are people too.
And incidently, I know a few scientists who would just laugh, and a few religious people who would not throw a fit from that board, but smile.

Isn’t it funny, that people are people first and whatever else second?

“I’ve had the same thing happen with anti-gay slurs as well. Unlike most people, I don’t just nod and smile when someone calls people faggot or other such slurs. While I will gladly fight for their legal right to say such things, I won’t let it go unanswered and I certainly won’t allow it in my house. And the reaction is the same every time.

Well done, Ed!”

Item 2:

“The billboard came down around 4:00 Friday afternoon and nearby business owners are relieved. Straub’s restaurant can replace the sign with the night’s specials.

Why are people so amazingly insecure in their religion that they feel “insulted” when somebody questions it?”

I’m sure that there are other differences, but they are probably much subtler than the question of whether our friend’s ox or our enemy’s ox is getting gored.

Straubs got involved because people thought they owned the sign. Hey put up whatever you want. But who is responsible for the countless hours i had to waste defending myself, being accused/blamed for the billboard. If you have the kahuna’s to put it up, have the kahuna’s to take responsibility. have an opinion but know all the facts.